


Into the Woods...

by AllHallowsEve



Series: Wincest Colored Glasses [2]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angst, Episode: s01e02 Wendigo, Longing, Love, M/M, Self Loathing, Wincest - Freeform, so much love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-29
Updated: 2018-05-29
Packaged: 2019-05-15 15:58:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,811
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14793539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllHallowsEve/pseuds/AllHallowsEve
Summary: The boys go into the woods trying to find their dad.  Instead they find the monster he has sent them there to kill.Episode 2 as viewed through my Wincest colored glasses.





	Into the Woods...

**Author's Note:**

> So the first work in this series was supposed to be a stand alone, even though I had ideas of maybe touching on a few of the others through the lenses of my Wincest colored glasses. But [MsGer](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MsGer) inspired me to try to take on all the episodes. Not sure I will manage ALL the episodes, but this is the 2nd one in this new challenging endeavor so I hope you enjoy it!!
> 
> As always, this is unbeta'd so please let me know if you see any glaring mistakes so I can fix them.

Sam jerked awake on his side of the car with a start.  Dean watched in concerned silence.  He couldn’t remember how many times Sam had done so over the past week since Jess’s death.  Sam tried to convince him he was okay, but Dean could tell.  He wasn’t okay.  Who could blame him with what he had gone through.  But still, Sam needed to talk about it.  Dean hated chick flick moments and all, but Sam would never get passed being haunted by Jess’s death if he didn’t get his feelings out.

Dean desperately wanted Sam to get over her, not just her death, but his feelings for her.  Guilt rode up Dean’s spine.  He was a horrible person and an even worse brother for wanting what he wanted from Sam.  But no amount of trying had managed to get his darker urges to stop so he was just hanging on and trying to ride through it all.

They were on their way to Black Water Ridge, which is where their father’s coordinates in his journal had pointed them. 

Dean just had to focus on finding their dad and all would be right again.  When his dad was there, he could fight his feelings better.  He could swallow them down, knowing his father would kill him if he ever found out what he desired from Sam, so it was an impossibility.  It was just as impossible when it was the two of them, alone, but he couldn’t quite convince his sick libido of that.  So finding their dad had to be the number one priority. 

Sam was all about it too.  He was in such a hurry to get to the coordinates that when Dean suggested interviewing a missing kid’s sister about it, Sam complained, “What’re ya cruising for a hookup or something?” 

Dean laughed it off because Sam had always complained when Dean made time for a little female companionship in every town.  So that was nothing new.  What was new was Sam’s patience running thin in every way.  It was completely out of character for him to want to skip an interview with a potential witness about what they could be walking into.  She could be the clue they needed to know why their dad had sent them to the middle of nowhere to begin with.

It just wasn’t like Sam at all, to go storming into an unknown case with no background info to help them prepare.  It had Dean worried.

When they met Hailey to get details about her missing brother, she complimented Dean on the car.  Sam rolled his eyes.  He hated how every woman Dean had ever met had wanted him.  Sam couldn’t blame them.  In fact he knew all too well exactly how they felt.  Understanding it, didn’t make it any easier.  He hated the way Dean flirted.  He hated the attention Dean gave anyone with a pretty face.  Sam knew he should be focused on finding their dad.   Getting revenge on the thing that killed Jess and their mom, but being with Dean after all this time made his head spin.

He was feeling all the old jealousies arise from the time he was 13 and his hormones first kicked in and alerted him to how very different he was from every other kid, especially Dean.  Dean had been straight as an arrow and a womanizer since he was old enough to know what part of his anatomy went where with the opposite sex.  Sam had never felt that way.  He found women pretty enough, and he had cared for Jess.  But Dean had always been the only person his body wanted.  He had been the only source of intense desire to ever really turn Sam’s head. 

And being with him on the road, when his emotions were all turned upside down, with the guilt of Jess’s death being his fault, was agony.  There was a whole new level of itch just below his skin, to touch Dean, to have him touch him.  So when the old feelings of jealousies, from watching Dean want every woman in the world but not Sam, kicked into gear again, he just didn’t have the stomach for it.

He tried hard to focus on interviewing Hailey and her younger brother, but Dean seemed to make a connection with her that stomped all over Sam’s nerves. He threw himself into research and just tried to forget how Dean smiling at Hailey made him feel. 

Sam had forgotten how good it made him feel for Dean to look pleased at him when he discovered clues about what they were tracking.  But when they sat in the local bar and discussed what might have taken Hailey’s brother, having Dean’s attention focused solely on him, seeing him smile at Sam when he explained all the history he had dug up on the missing people in the area, it made Sam’s heart swell.

He needed to be careful.  He was supposed to be in mourning.  And he was, but damn, the way Dean made him feel, it was intoxicating. 

Later, when they went together to interview another witness that Sam had dug up, Mr. Shaw, who was the only survivor of any of the attacks that had happened in the area, it struck Sam what a good team he and Dean made.

They worked off of each other, questioning the old man, building trust with him, tag teaming him with their leading questions.  It felt amazing to Sam.  He had never really been part of the interview process before when they hunted with their Dad.  He had been too young.  He was always on research duty.  He loved doing research, he excelled at it, always had, even when he was a kid.  But this, working closely with Dean, Dean trusting him to take the lead with the old man, it was unlike anything he had ever experienced with Dean before.

Sam lost his temper with him though, when they got back to the hotel as Dean was packing weapons from the car trunk into their duffle.  Dean explained his plan to go into the woods the next day with the Hailey girl.  It murdered Sam’s last nerve to hear Dean discuss the fact that he understood her wanting to search for her brother.  Sam didn’t want Dean to empathize with her.  He didn’t want him to go out in the woods and “protect her.” 

Sam just wanted to go out and find their dad and kill whatever it was that Dad was after and get this all over with.  He was so tired of watching Dean want other people.  He slammed the trunk and lashed out about having to babysit Hailey in the woods.  The way Dean looked at him when he stated his frustration stopped him cold.  Dean watched him with some kind of knowing look, anger seemed to be reflected back at Sam from his brother’s visage.  Dean threw the duffle full of weapons at Sam and walked away, leaving him alone with his confused emotions.

The next morning Sam had managed to calm down somewhat.  Going over and over the information he had gathered trying to glean any clues that might point what they would be up against had given him something else to focus on.  It had worked well enough, soothing his mind, until they met up with Hailey and her group and began the trek into the woods.  Watching Dean build a rapport with her, gain her trust as they went, destroyed the calm Sam had managed over night.

The farther into the woods they went the chummier Dean and Hailey seemed.  After the unknown thing mimicked a human voice to lure them away and had stolen all their gear, it hit Sam what they were actually up against.  He showed Dean in their dad’s journal that it was a Wendigo.  Finally he had an excuse to get Hailey and the others out of the woods and to safety so that he and Dean could focus on finding their dad.  The only problem, Hailey refused to leave.  Even after Sam blew up and Dean had to admit to the group what they were up against, the stubborn bitch wouldn’t leave.  Dean kept taking her side and it was driving Sam crazy.

Later that night once Dean had marked the camp with a protective circle of Anasazi symbols to keep the Wendigo out, he came over to where Sam sat brooding in silence.  He had to get his little brother to talk.  The anger that was seething from every pore of Sam’s being was getting to Dean.  He couldn’t take Sam holding all that pent up anxiety and frustration inside.  It was eating Dean up watching him that way. 

He confronted Sam, not accepting his pat answer of being fine any longer.  He pushed until Sam confessed that what was eating at him was the fact that their dad wasn’t even there.  That it seemed he never had been. 

Sam’s anger about their dad, brought back a lot of painful memories for Dean. Before Sam had left for Stanford, the last few years they were all together had been hellish.  Sam had questioned every decision their father made about each hunt.  Had pushed John to do things in a different way, tried to get him to read the boys in on his plans and not just keep them in the dark.  It had been so hard on Dean to be put in the middle between the two people he loved most in the world.

Sam began a verbal tirade going down that path again about how he didn’t understand why their dad had sent them here with a cryptic message.  Why was he missing, when all he needed to do was call them and explain what was going on?  What also frustrated Sam was how Dean just seemed to accept all his dad’s instructions.  Even now, when there weren’t any, Dean believed his dad had put them on this path to follow in his footsteps.  He watched as Dean’s face lit up when he explained his theory about their dad’s leaving his journal behind as his way to tell them that they were supposed to take up his mantle. 

Dean’s face was beautiful with the flickering firelight dancing across his cheeks.  His eyes alive with fierce belief as he told Sam, “I think Dad wants us to pick up where he left off.  You know, saving people, hunting things, the family business.”

Panic filled Sam, his brother’s beauty took his breath away and all he wanted to do was give Dean anything he asked for.  He had to get a hold of himself.  He took a deep breath in and tried to steady his nerves.  Seeing Dean passionate about something was always a heady experience, but tonight, especially out here, in the dark, with something dangerous stalking them, it was all Sam could do to control what was brewing deep inside of himself. 

He turned to something safe, his frustration with his father.  He was keeping them in the dark, the way he always had.  That was easy fodder for Sam to use as a shield.  He wrapped himself in that, in his need to find his dad so that there would be a protective barrier between himself and his desire for Dean.  If they could just find John, he would be a stalwart safety between the boys, always had been, so that maybe Sam could get his desire for his brother back under some kind of control.  He could focus on finding the thing that killed Jess, killed their mom, and finally break free from this ugliness of wanting his brother so badly that it ached inside of him.

Dean seemed particularly eager to talk tonight.  He was letting his guard down with Sam in a way Sam wasn’t used to.  Letting Sam see how happy he was to just be “doing the job” that their dad set out for them.  Sam wasn’t sure what he might do or say with Dean being so open.  Dean was being compassionate to Sam, thinking this was all about his losing Jess.  He was looking at Sam with such concern and love, that Sam could barely stand it.  When Dean said that what helped him get through it all was “Killing as many evil sons of bitches as I possibly can,” Sam nearly lost all self control, taken aback by Dean’s passion for what he loved to do.

Dean’s face was so at peace, so open, it caught Sam completely off guard. And the small smile that pulled at the corner of Dean’s lips as he looked at Sam was contagious.  Sam couldn’t help the smile of his own that escaped without his permission. 

There was no telling what Sam might have said or done in that instance without the distraction of hearing someone out in the woods yell, “Help!”

The brothers tried to convince everyone to stay in the circle.  As long as they were behind the symbols they were safe.  But the tracker Hailey had hired wouldn’t listen.  He took off out into the night recklessly after the Wendigo thinking he hit it with his gun.  The boys tried to stop him, tried to find him, but the Wendigo had him and all they could do was go back to the camp and protect Hailey and her brother until the sun came up.

At daybreak, it was decided that they would all band together and try to kill the Wendigo.  They went off into the woods attempting to track it, but Sam quickly got the feeling that the thing was leading them into a trap.  Dean listened in silent awe at Sam’s explanation.  Thinking, not for the first time, that the man standing beside him was the most amazing person he had ever met.  He had always felt that way about his little brother, but since they had been travelling together this time, hunting for their dad, Dean had noticed all the ways Sam had changed.  He had been a teenager when he had left them for Stanford.  That was no longer the case.  The young boy, Dean had always tried to protect, had been replaced while he wasn’t looking, with a tall, muscular capable man who was smart and strong and _oh god_ , he needed to stop this train of thought.

The Wendigo stopped those thoughts for him by growling and surrounding the group seemingly from all sides.  They ran back the way they had come but got separated when Sam stopped to help Hailey’s little brother when he fell.  It was all the time the Wendigo needed to capture both Dean and Hailey. 

When Sam realized what had happened, he panicked.  He couldn’t lose Dean, especially not right when he had finally gotten him back in his life.  Sure he didn’t know how to just be a brother to Dean, and it was a constant struggle, still feeling he should leave Dean to protect him from himself, but, he couldn’t let anything happen to him.  He would rather die than allow that.

Sam yelled his brother’s name helplessly out into the woods.  Not knowing which direction the thing went, it seemed to move without leaving tracks when it wanted.  But then, Dean showed Sam the way.  He had been teaching Sam tricks his entire life and Sam had always thought Dean was stupendously brilliant, even if he didn’t tell his brother that.  Dean had left a trail better than bread crumbs for them to follow.  Brightly colored M&Ms led them right to the monster’s hideout.

Sam’s heart pounded wildly as he searched the mine for his brother.  He wasn’t used to having to protect a civilian while on a hunt.  He tried his best to look out for Hailey’s little brother but his focus was on finding Dean.  It was pure serendipity when they fell through rotted floorboards right into the Wendigo’s food storage hideaway.  It hurt Sam’s soul to see Dean blooded and hanging by his hands from the ceiling.  His breath caught in his throat and he panicked trying to get Dean to wake up.  Relief spread through his body and his legs got weak when Dean finally came to and told him he was okay. Sam made quick work of cutting his brother down but he wasn’t sure he believed him when he said he was alright.    It wasn’t until Dean happened upon some flare guns while Sam was busy helping Hailey cut her missing brother down from the ceiling that Sam felt they might actually survive.

The brothers smiled at each other from across the cave and Sam’s heart felt like he was truly okay for the first time since Dean went missing.

When it became apparent that Hailey’s brother was too banged up to outrun the Wendigo, Dean came up with a plan.  Sam knew what he was thinking and he hated it.  He understood why Dean thought it was their best bet, but he hated the idea of Dean using himself as bait to draw the monster out so that Sam could get the others to safety. 

This kind of thing was one of the reasons Sam hated hunting.  He hated how both John and Dean were always eager to use Dean as bait for the monster of the week.  It ate Sam up inside when he first learned as a kid that that was what John primarily took Dean on hunts for.  It made Sam hate his father more and more as he grew up and saw just how well John had trained Dean to mindlessly throw himself in harm’s way to enable John to go in for the kill.  Dean was an amazing hunter, but his dad used him callously when he was young.  Sam fought tooth and nail to stop John from doing so.  It was one of the main ongoing arguments that drove Sam to leave.  That and his own realization that one of the reasons he desperately wanted to stop Dean from hunting was because he loved his brother too much.  Sure it was normal that he didn’t want his brother to get hurt.  But the sick nauseous feeling of knowing just how badly he loved his brother, that that played a role in his desperation to keep him safe, it all became too much.

His need to protect Dean made him crazy on hunts.  Kept him distracted and made him make mistakes.  Which in turn made John crazy and would end with a huge blowout at the end of almost every hunt, whether it was successful or not, whether Dean had gotten hurt or not.

All that pent up fear and frustration that had churned in him growing up flooded through him yet again as he watched helplessly while Dean took off alone down one of the mine shafts yelling at the Wendigo to come and get him.  As Dean yelled “I taste good,” to get the Wendigo’s attention, Sam’s mind went to something darker, somewhere he couldn’t believe his thoughts would take him in the middle of watching his brother place himself in danger.  But it was true, Sam wondered how Dean would taste, how his body would feel against his tongue if he ever got the chance to run it across his skin.

Sam shook his head.  He had to focus.  He had to get these people to safety so that he could come back and get to his brother, to help him bring this monster down once and for all.

The group hadn’t made it very far when Sam was startled by the Wendigo coming after them.  His flare went wild and left him and the people he was trying to protect defenseless as the monster came slowly up the tunnel towards them. Sam was so frustrated with himself, he couldn’t believe it was going to end this way.  After everything he had done to escape this life, to run from his feelings for his brother, and now, he was going to die, leaving Dean alone to face the monster all on his own.  He stood in front of the others, knowing he would protect them with his body to the very last minute, but sadness and fear filled his entire being as he watched the monster crow in triumph, mere feet away.

But then to his surprised relief he heard his brother, his savior, his everything, yell in anger at the monster to get its attention.  As has been the case so many times before, Dean’s aim was true and dead center, hitting the Wendigo causing it to catch fire from the inside out.  All eyes were on the monster, but the brothers only had eyes for each other.  Relief at them both still being alive, to fight another day filled their hearts.

The battered group found their way back out of the wilderness informing the police at the rangers station of the ‘bear’ that had attacked the camp and killed the others. Sam tried not to listen to the banter that his brother was having with Hailey.  It churned his stomach as he watched her lean over and kiss Dean’s cheek, in thanks.  The way Dean’s eyes watched her as she turned and walked away made Sam feel ill inside.

To try to clear his head and punish Dean at the same time, he informed him that he would be driving.  Dean handed him the keys wordlessly.  Just thankful with every fiber of his being that he had gotten to his brother in time, that the Wendigo hadn’t killed Sam, the way it had played over and over in his head as he had been searching for the damned thing in the tunnels.

He had nightmares that night of it being Sam’s body lying dead at his feet instead of the Wendigo’s.  It was so good to have his brother by his side on the hunt, but in the long years of being without him there, he had forgotten how hard it was to hunt with him, needing to protect him every moment of every day.  Not just because his father had always told him to ‘take care of Sammy,” but because it was a need so deeply rooted in his very soul that it could distract him from everything else.  He had to find a way to balance not only his desire for his brother, that was growing by the day, as they were back together in close quarters, but his need to protect him, while still trusting him to get the job done, or their hunting together would be impossible.

His mind swirled with it all, as they drove off under the morning sun, to try to get a clue on where their dad might be.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I think I am growing as a person because this hasn't gone smutty yet. I am sure the series will eventually get to a smutty place, I mean, come on, I love smut (especially with these two) and I tend to always head in that direction when given an opportunity. But it just hasn't felt natural yet. I am just letting the boys lead me wherever they want with this series. 
> 
> I genuinely have no idea where I am going here, I am just watching the old episodes and putting a magnifying glass on the parts that look Wincesty to me and giving my take on it. 
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this one. I already have the 3rd episode finished. Just editing it now so it should be up soon too.


End file.
